Children’s Conference and Near Death Experiences

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Yesterday we were at the Kumi hospital. Across the street a children’s’ ministry that began at 10 o’clock, and looked like a very large VBS. There are seven teams of two people assigned to groups of children of various ages. The group leaders will direct the children to five different stations. While all of this is going on, surgeries were being carried out at the hospital. Dr. Yarber and James Monroe saw patients, assessed their conditions, and diagnosed the problem for the team to handle in surgery in the coming days here at the Kumi hospital.
Outside, while patients waited, evangelistic teams walked the grounds, seeking out people to talk to about God’s love and the gospel. We passed out tracks and gospel coins, helping these people in physical and spiritual ways. There was a group of people outside Dr. Robert’s consultation and diagnoses room where Todd and Dave shared the evangecube, preached, and prayed over their physical needs and that they would realize God’s love for them.
The children’s ministry is an awesome opportunity for us to reach these young kids, many of them homeless, malnourished, orphans; and we are reaching them where they are. We don’t just bring the gospel to them, but we meet physical needs by giving them some food. It has been said that a man cannot hear the gospel over the growling of his stomach.

If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

–James 2:15-16

In other words, it’s one thing to see the destitute state of others and have pity on them, it is another thing to bring them those things which provide relief from their current circumstances. It is easier to witness to a friend, then it is to a stranger. A true sign of friendship is that we look on another with compassion, and offer him what we have that could help.

Children swarmed the small area surrounding the church across from the Kumi hospital. There were children ages 15 to 3 or 4 everywhere. It was our task to somehow organize these children into groups by age, then lead them to various points where we had activities. At least, that was the plan. In reality, corralling 500 children is a much more difficult task than even the prepared could’ve anticipated. There were five stations and seven age groups, some of which were divided and grouped with others so that we would have five groups going to five different stations. The rotation was such that no one group should be at an activity at the same time that another would be. Again, this was the plan, it was not what actually happened. Because some of the activities like crafts took longer than others, this slowed the rotation down. At times when the people hosting the activities would finish, and there would not be another activity station to go to, because they were not finished yet, we would just wait with the children and attempt to keep them all in a single group.

To say it was an adventure would be an accurate statement. And all this happened before lunch!

After lunch, likely because of something I ate, a had an allergic reaction to something and slowly it took its toll on me, growing progressively worse as the day went on. By the end of the day, when the rest of the team besides medical headed back to the Kumi hotel, it had become so bad that I stayed at the hospital and had our surgeon look me over. They gave me shot of Benadryl in the arm and something else in the hip. I rested last night, took some steroids, Zyrtec, and some other medicine Ricky Gualt had in his room. I appear to be doing much better now.

Good news! Caleb arrive mid-day today and immediately jumped in and started making up for lost time. It is so good to have to whole team together, finally! Thanks so much for your prayers and we ask you to continue praying that God would move in a mighty way in and through us!